The Grand Adventures of Ruby Carbuncle
by the-sleepy-dormouse
Summary: Ruby is a simple duel monster. Just by looking at her one would never imagine how much mischief one little monster could get into. For small Ruby, even a stroll down the apartment hallways is a grand adventure waiting to happen.


Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Yugioh GX characters!

Hello everyone! This is my first fan-fiction ever. I plan to just make a bunch of little 'short' stories based around the lovable Ruby Carbuncle! My hope is that by the end of my stories you are happy! Yup, that's it!

This first chapter is about dear Ruby and her search for other monsters just like her! Enjoy.

The Grand Adventures of Ruby Carbuncle

Chapter one

Ruby the Carbuncle

Today was one of those mornings where it was particularly hard to wake up. The sun was barely out and the windows of the small apartment were frosted over. It was early and almost time to wake up. (How early you may ask? Well unfortunately Ruby never learned how to tell time but she could tell by her sleepiness that it was quite early).

Ruby was under the covers nestled up against the warm chest of her human, Johan. This was her favorite sleeping situation. Her human's chest was warm and being under the covers made it feel like she was in a burrow. She didn't know if other carbuncles (if there were other carbuncles) also liked the idea of sleeping in a burrow but she did. She felt her human shift a bit in bed. She stretched out her front paws, gave a small yawn and cuddled up closer to him.

At that moment her human's alarm went off. Ruby did not like that alarm too much. It always disturbed her sleep. Though duel monsters don't need sleep, Ruby liked HER sleep and did NOT like it when it was disturbed. She felt her human pull the covers off of himself and sit up. This caused all of the heat in Ruby's 'burrow' to escape and revealed her to the harsh elements of the apartment (the apartment really was not that cold). Ruby could not tell you how cold it was, for she had never learned how to tell the temperature. All she could tell was that it was colder then her 'burrow' (Ruby was just a bit of a drama queen when waking up).

Johan looked down at Ruby and smiled. "Good morning," he said as he patted her on the head.

"Ru-bi-bi-bi," Ruby replied. She stretched out her left front paw and gave another small yawn. Yes, mornings were hard.

Ruby watched as Johan rubbed the sleep from his eyes and got out of bed. Johan gave a small sigh and turned on the heater. Ruby could tell that he didn't care for early mornings either. He then went to the bathroom to do what ever it is Johan does in the bathroom. Ruby didn't know what the bathroom was for, nor did she really care.

She curled back up, gave another yawn and lay down. She lazily looked around the small apartment. It was still dark, for the curtains were closed shut (though there was a small bit of light peeking through) and Johan had not turned on the lights. It was a one bedroom apartment with a small bathroom, and a kitchenette with one burner and a tiny fridge. In the sleeping area there was a bed (which Ruby was on), a desk with a chair, a TV, and a closet. This was Ruby's favorite room for it had the bed. Ruby liked the bed.

After a few minutes Johan came out of the bathroom. He flipped the lights on in the bedroom. He was wearing different clothes. Ruby wondered why humans bothered wearing clothes. Sometimes Johan would put clothes on her. She didn't really like it, but at the same time didn't mind because it seemed to make Johan happy.

Johan went into the kitchenette and started to make breakfast. This caught Ruby's attention. There were two things in this world Ruby liked most. The first being Johan, the second was sleep and the last was food (Ruby was never really good at counting. She could only count to 8 because she only had four toes on each paw, except for those rare occasions where she remembered that her hind paws also had toes. Then she could count to 16, though she never found much use in counting to 16).

She hopped off the bed and bounced into the kitchen. She sat at Johan's heels. "Ru-bi-bi-biiiii," she squeaked as she rubbed her head on his leg.

Johan chuckled and looked down at her. "Hello to you too," he said and gave her a pat on the head. She cocked her head to the side and looked up at him. He chuckled again. "I know what you want. It's not ready yet. Go wait on the bed so I can finish cooking," Johan said as he stood back up and resumed cooking.

Ruby cocked her head the other way, looked up at him, gave a small squeak and returned to the bed. The smell of breakfast woke Ruby up. Ruby liked food almost as much as she liked Johan and sleeping. Though duel monsters don't need to eat, Ruby still liked to eat. The other gem beasts would say things like "Ruby, why do you sleep?" Or "Ruby, we don't need to eat. Leave Johan alone." Ruby would say "I never heckle you about your likes and dislike." (Or at least she would say that if she could speak). Thinking of this made her a bit disgruntled. She cleaned her nose with her front paws.

At that moment Johan came in with breakfast. It was eggs and toast. Ruby liked sweets the best but did not mind eggs and toast. She hopped off the bed onto the desk (for that is where Johan ate his breakfast). He sat down and started to eat. Ruby gave him her best 'please feed me' look and squeaked. "Oh! Okay, you talked me into it," Johan said as he tore off some toast and fed it to Ruby. Ruby happily took it and munched away. Johan smiled and gave her head a pat.

Johan looked over at his alarm clock and his eyes went wide. "Oh, no! I'll be late," he said as he shoved the rest of the food into his mouth and chugged his juice. This startled Ruby, causing her to jump a bit. He stood up and grabbed his bag and made for the door. Ruby hopped off the desk and followed after him.

"Ru-bi-bi-bi," She said.

"Oh! Sorry girl. I can't take you today. Its finals and I have to take some tests. I can't take you along. You understand, right?" he said this as he bent down and petted her behind her right ears.

Ruby cocked her head to the side and gave him a confused look. She blinked twice, her right eye blinking faster then her left eye (her eyes tended to do this when she was confused. Johan thought it was cute. Ruby didn't care either way).

"Listen, if you're a good girl I will bring back a treat, okay?" Johan said as he stood up.

"Rubi!" Ruby said happily! She knew what the word treat meant.

"I'm off then," Johan said as he left the small apartment. He forgot to turn off the lights. He often did this. Ruby didn't mind.

Ruby looked at the door for a few seconds and then got up. She made for the windowsill. This was one of her favorite places to pass boring days like today. She hopped up onto the windowsill and slipped behind the curtains (Johan hadn't opened them. They were still closed). She looked out the window and down at the people below. Johan's apartment was quite high up. How high up you may ask? Ruby didn't know. She was not too good with numbers but she could tell that it was very high up. It was so high that the people below looked the size of mice.

Her mind wandered as she watched the people pass below her. The sun was out now and the frost on the window had melted. She though about the other gem beasts, wishing they would come out and keep her company. She knew they wouldn't. They felt it was a bother to Johan to follow him around everywhere. Ruby didn't agree. On days like this she felt extra lonely. She was not the same as the other gem beasts. They could talk, they were big, and they were strong. But she was small, could not talk, and was not so strong.

She though back to the time they had gone to Duel Academy in Japan. She had met Hane-kuriboh there. Though they fought often, it was nice to have a duel monster around that was the same size as she. She would never admit it out loud, but she missed Hane-kuriboh quite a bit. She sometimes wished that there was another monster like her in Johan's deck to play with. She wished for someone small and compact that she could get into mischief with, like she did with Hane-kuriboh.

"Rubiiii," she sighed as she looked up at the sky. Her mind wandered to whether there were other carbuncles out there. She had been told that she was the only Ruby Carbuncle in the world. This made her feel lonely (Ruby often felt lonely when Johan was not around. When he was around feelings like this would vanish right way). An idea then came to her. She may be the only Ruby Carbuncle but she wondered if there were other carbuncles out there too. Like maybe a water carbuncle, or a fire carbuncle, or even a grass carbuncle. Ruby perked up a bit.

She then looked down again at the city and saw it! Her eyes widened in disbelief. A big truck with a picture of what looked like 5 different kinds of carbuncles was stopped at the traffic light outside the apartment. The carbuncles were all sitting in a circle around a red and white ball. There was a brown carbuncle with a fuzzy chest, a blue carbuncle with a fish tail, another blue carbuncle with big bangs, a red carbuncle with a flaming body, a yellow carbuncle with spiked hair, a green carbuncle that had a tail like a leaf, a black carbuncle with yellow rings on its body and a purple carbuncle that had a jewel on its forehead just like her, though its tail and ears were a bit different (Ruby is not too good with numbers). Ruby hopped up in excitement and almost fell off the windowsill.

Just then the traffic light turned green and the truck took off. Ruby watched as it turned the corner and disappeared.

"Rubiiiiii," she squeaked. She knew what she was going to do today. She was going to find that truck, follow it and find the other carbuncles. She would maybe also try to bring back one or two to play with on boring days like this one. She hopped off the windowsill and made for the air vent. She always used this as a means to escape on days when Johan was gone. There was a little girl two doors down (Ruby could count to two) that could see her and Ruby would sometimes sneak out and pay her a visit but today she had important business to attend to.

Ruby climbed up into the air vent. It was small, dusty, and dark. Ruby didn't like dust too much. She walked a ways and went towards the light that was the hallway of the apartment building. She hopped out of the vent. In doing this it caused the vent cover to come off. The landlord of the apartment was never too pleased with this for it never occurred to Ruby that she should put the vent's cover back after taking it off. The landlord could never figure out what was knocking the vents open for he could not see duel monsters and so it didn't occur to him that it was Ruby's doing. He just assumed it was the children in the apartments.

Ruby turned and looked at the front of Johan's apartment door. He lived in door number 808. It was a big number and Ruby didn't really understand it. She turned and looked down the long hallway. She had strolled up and down this hallway many times but had never been to other parts of the apartment. She did know that there was a box at the end of the hall that would get you to the bottom of the apartment. She had ridden in it with Johan before. She could not remember which way the box was. Ruby's sense of direction was just about as keen as Johan's sense of direction. She chose a direction and took it.

She looked around as she walked. There were many doors with numbers on them. She assumed that other humans lived behind these doors. She stopped at door number 806. This was where the little girl lived. Ruby gave a small meep and kept walking. She got to the end of the hall to find the box she had been looking for (I guess her sense of direction is better then Johan's). She sat in front of the door and cocked her head to the side and gave another small meep. She knew that she had to do something to open it but she could not remember what.

She sat there and concentrated. It was hard for Ruby to concentrate. When she concentrated too hard she often became confused or would forget what she was doing altogether. Just then the box made a _bing_ sound and the door opened. A man walked out and Ruby went in. She meeped at the man to say thank you. The man did not seem to take notice of Ruby. She didn't mind.

The door to the box closed. She sat there waiting for something to happen. She remembered that once she was in the box she had to do something. That's right! She had to choose a number to go to. Ruby looked at the area of the box where a long list of numbers in squares were listed. The numbers went from 1 to past 8 (Ruby was not good with numbers. She had never seen so many numbers in her life.) She gave a small squeak. There was only one thing she could do and that was pick a number and hope for the best. She chose the closest number to her (number one) and slapped it with her tail. She felt the box move down.

Ruby liked this box. It was like magic. One second you would be in the hallway of the apartment with all the doors, and the next second you would be at the front door of the building. She didn't know how it worked nor did she really care to find out as long as she was able to get to where she wanted.

The box stopped and the door opened. She was pleased to see that it let her off where she wanted. She trotted out of the box. She wondered if any of the buttons would take you to this place or if she was just lucky in choosing her numbers. She cocked her head and gave a small meep. It was too confusing. She felt she would never really understand how the box worked and decided that she really didn't care.

She looked around the lobby. There was a young girl behind the counter chewing on some gum and reading a book. Ruby looked at her and meeped to say hello. She didn't seem to notice Ruby. Ruby didn't mind.

Ruby then made for the front door. It was one of those doors that open on its own when you stand in front of it. Ruby went to it and it opened (Though most people can't seem to see duel spirits, automatic doors could. Ruby didn't think much of it). Ruby trotted out of the door and into the street. The girl behind the counter glanced up to see who'd come in. There was no one there (for she could not see Ruby). She shrugged it off and went back to reading her book.

The door closed behind Ruby. It was even colder out here than it was in the apartment. Ruby never really noticed the cold outside because when she went outside she was normally ridding on Johan's shoulder, which was surprisingly warm. She gave a small shiver and looked around. She was not going to let a little cold weather get in her way of… doing what ever it is she was going to do today… what was she going to do today again? Ruby sat there for a second. She forgot why she had decided to go outside. She thought. Then it came to her! That's right! She was going to find the 9 other carbuncles she saw on the truck (Numbers were hard for Ruby).

She looked up and down the street! Where did that truck go again? Then she remembered that it turned at the traffic light. She looked down the street again and saw that there were two traffic lights on each end of the street. Ruby squeaked. This was becoming way too confusing so she just chose a direction and went.

She looked around as she walked. The world was much bigger from down here than it was from the windowsill. The people were now much bigger than mice. Ruby wondered why that was. She got to the corner where the truck had turned (or at least this was the corner where she thought the truck had turned). She turned and when down the street. There was not so much to see, just a bunch of buildings and people. Ruby passed one building with cakes in the window. She stopped to admire them for a bit. She loved cake the most. She drooled a bit as she eyes a cake with strawberries and whipped cream on it. Maybe this was the treat Johan was going to bring home for her if she was good. She hoped it was.

She pulled herself out of her daydream and carried on down the street. It felt like she had been walking for a long time. How long you might ask? Well I'm sorry to say that Ruby is not good with numbers and was not sure herself. All she knew was that she was getting bored of walking. Just then she noticed a window with a picture of the carbuncles in it (Ruby does not understand the difference between a picture and a poster). She ran up to the window and examined the picture. Yes! It was them! They MUST be inside this store. She looked at the name of the store. Just like with numbers, Ruby was also bad with letters. She shrugged it off. It didn't matter what the store's name was.

She went to the door and to her luck it was automatic. The door opened for her. A fat jolly looking man was behind the counter reading a book. He looked up when the door opened and saw that no one was there (for he could not see Ruby). He shrugged it off and went back to reading. Ruby meeped to say hello. The jolly man did not take any notice of her. Ruby didn't mind.

She looked around the store. There were many wonderful things in this store. Small trains, stuffed animals, balls, and all sorts of things that made Ruby excited. Of course this was the place carbuncles would live. Carbuncles were one of the worlds most fun loving and playful duel monsters. She felt that she was going to find something here. She gave a small meep as she took off down an aisle.

The first aisle was very pink. It was full of little people in boxes. She tried to read what the boxes said but she was not good with letters and could not make anything out. She carried on. Further down the aisle she saw boxes with little colorful horses in them. One of the horses even looked like Sapphire Pegasus but smaller and its mane was rainbow. She gave a small meep to say hello to the Pegasus in the box. It didn't take any notice of her. She didn't mind.

She finally came to the end of the aisle. Drat! There were no carbuncles down that aisle. She was not surprised. It was too pink for carbuncles to live there. She then went down the next aisle.

Down the next aisle there was an array of bright colorful clothing. Some looked like fairy clothing while others looked like princess clothing. There were scepters, wands, and high heeled shoes. She even came across a pair of fairy wings. She did not know that fairies could take there wings off.

Down the next aisle things were a lot less pink. There were items that looked like guns. This made Ruby feel a bit uneasy. She gave a quiet meep as she quickly passed through this aisle.

She was starting to feel a bit down hearted. She had been down so many aisles already. She must have gone down at least 5 (she was not so good with numbers). She wondered if there really were any carbuncles here to begin with.

"Rubiiiiii," she said.

She decided that she would look down one more aisle and then call it a day if she came across nothing.

She turned the corner to the next aisle and could not believe her eyes. There they were! The other carbuncles! All six of them (numbers are hard). Even the spiky haired yellow one was there! She sprang down the aisle and with much joy in her little voice she said "Rubi". There were several of each colored carbuncle all lined up on shelves. She got to the purple carbuncle that looked like her and stopped.

"Rubi!" she said happily to the purple carbuncles.

They didn't respond. Ruby cocked her head. Maybe she was not being loud enough.

"RUBIIIIII," she said, this time much louder.

There was still no response. Well this was quite rude. Why were they ignoring her? Maybe they could not see her. She climbed up the shelf to where the purple carbuncles were sitting. She went over to one of the carbuncles. "Rubi!" she said giving the other carbuncle a nudge with her nose. It didn't do anything. Something was not right. Ruby became a bit frustrated. If this was a game, she didn't like it. "RUBI-BI-BI!" She shouted as she nudged the other carbuncle so hard that it fell off the shelf. The jolly old man at the front counter did not take any notice to this.

"Ru-Rubiii!" Ruby said as she grabbed for the falling carbuncle and missed. She closed both her eyes. She waited for the angry voice of the other carbuncle to shout at her for being shoved off the shelf. Ruby had done it this time. Why did she have to be so hasty? It was only a game and she had to take it so seriously. Now none of the other carbuncles would want to be her friend. After a bit she noticed that the fallen carbuncle did not make a sound. Not even a peep. How could this be? Falling off the shelf must have hurt. Could the other carbuncle have died? But it was not that high up.

She looked over the edge and saw the other carbuncle lying on the ground. There was something fishy about this other carbuncle. She hopped off of the shelf and sat next to the other carbuncle. She examined it. Yes, something was not quite right with this carbuncle. Normally when one falls, your body changes position but this carbuncle was still in the same position it was in when it was on the shelf, even though it was on its side.

"Rubi?" Ruby questioned. Ruby gave it a poke in the head with her paw. Yes, there was something odd about its head too. It was soft and squishy like a pillow. Aren't heads normally hard? Ruby looked around and noticed that all of the other purple carbuncles were in the same pose as the one on the floor. She looked around at the other colored carbuncles and they were also making the same pose. What was going on? This made Ruby very confused. How could this be? What was wrong?

Then it hit her! Yes! That must be it! They must be under a spell! That's why no one else had seen any other carbuncles. They had all been here in some sort of deep sleep.

Ruby became very alarmed now. Who could have done this? She heard the jolly man at the front counter cough as he read a book. She turned at looked at him. It was him! She knew it! He must be a wizard of some sort. An evil wizard! Ruby knew she was not safe here and had to leave now. If she was caught she would also be made into a statue just like all the other carbuncles. If that happened that meant she would never see Johan again! She would never be able to sleep with him, eat with him, or even duel with him. Worst of all, she would never know what the treat was that Johan had for her tonight! What if it was a slice of that cake she saw earlier today! She could not let that go to waste.

She didn't want to leave the other carbuncles behind but could not do anything to save them now. She would go back home and let the others know about this. With their help she would surely be able to save the carbuncles.

She noticed that the jolly old man had left his post at the front counter. She took this opportunity to dash out as fast as she could. She ran for the automatic door. It opened for her!

When she was outside she looked around the street! She could not remember how to get home! She started to panic when she noticed a familiar face coming down the street. It was the little girl from door 806! Ruby was overjoyed. She knew that if she followed the little girl she would be able to find her way back to door 808. Ruby hopped over to her

The little girl took notice of Ruby right away! "Look, mommy!" She said pointing at Ruby "it's the Espeon that lives a few doors down from us!"

"What are you talking about honey? There is nothing there," her mother replied.

The little girl cocked her head and looked at her mom. Her mom had never been able to see Ruby before. She wondered if Ruby was like the tooth fairy or Santa, you could only see Ruby if you believed in her.

"Hello, Espeon!" the little girl said as she picked Ruby up. Ruby did not know why this little girl called her Espeon. She supposed it was because the little girl did not know her real name. Ruby didn't mind. She was happy now. She was going home.

Ruby, not being good with numbers, figured she must have been gone for hours. What if Johan was home and found her missing? He would be worried. Ruby didn't like it when Johan was worried.

Before Ruby knew it they were back in the apartment building. The little girl and her mom said hello to the woman at the front desk and arrived at the moving box. The mother pushed the button with the up arrow and the box's door opened. They rode it up and the box magically let them off into the hall with all the doors.

Ruby knew that she was finally safe. The little girl let Ruby down and Ruby thanked her with a small meep. The little girl waved goodbye and went into her door.

Ruby climbed back into the vent that led to her room. The cover was still off. She scurried though the vent to her exit and hopped out. She was very relieved to be home. She looked around to find that Johan was not back quite yet. She jumped onto the bed and curled up. It was nice to be back in bed where it was safe. She knew she had to do something to help those other carbuncles but that would have to wait for another time. Before she could think (not that she ever really thought) she drifted off to sleep.

Ruby awoke to the sound of the door opening and closing. She had been sprawled out on the bed. She lifted her head to see Johan coming into the room.

"I'm home!" he said as he kicked off his shoes.

"Rubi" Ruby said as she jumped off the bed. She was very happy to see him. He opened the curtains at his window. The sun was going down and the sky was becoming a dark purple. He sat on the chair at his desk and sighed. Ruby jumped up and rubbed her head against his face. He looked very tired. "Boy! Am I glad those are over," he said patting her on the head. "I never thought university would be so hard."

"Rubi," Ruby replied.

"Oh! Yeah! I forgot! I got you a treat for keeping the house safe while I was gone," He said as he pulled something out of his bag.

Ruby was very excited to see what it was! He opened up a box to reveal two shortbread cookies.

"RUBI!" Ruby shouted with joy. Though it was not the cake she had seen earlier, she still enjoyed cookies. She took one and munched away at it. Johan chuckled as he took the other cookie and ate it. He wondered if it was okay to let duel monsters eat sweets. He figured it was okay.

She was going to tell Johan of the carbuncles she met today but decided he looked a bit too tired and thought it better to tell him tomorrow.

Johan picked up a black square thing and used it to turn on the TV.

Ruby finished up her cookie and hopped onto Johan's lap and curled up. He began to stroke her back gently. She gave a small meep as she dozed off. Yes, tomorrow, she would tell him about her adventure, but for now they should both rest.

END

I hope you enjoyed my first story. I hope it made you smile at least once :D Please let me know what you think!

I will try to write more soon. I just need the next inspiration to HIT.

Also I would like to thank my friend for editing my grammar and stuff. She knows who she is. (I don't know if they want me to reveal them or not.)


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